


both a little scared (neither one prepared)

by potahtopotato



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-03-08 06:19:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13452303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potahtopotato/pseuds/potahtopotato
Summary: Wolfstar fluff! (Background Jily). A collection of unrelated Wolfstar ficlets. Occasional AU's, occasional angst, always Wolfstar.





	1. Chapter 1

_Ping!_

Sirius grabs his phone and smiles when he sees the notification. A new message from the guy he's been talking to for the last few hours appears on the screen:

**Nah, I love dogs. Cats, on the other hand, not so much.**

Sirius bites his lower lip, then types out a reply.

_Me too. I went to this private high school, and the dean had a cat that would follow me around all day. I think it's caused some PTSD, to be honest with you._

**Ha, that's great. My friends own a cat, and I swear it can tell I don't like it.**

_Yeah?_

**The thing always sits on my lap, which doesn't even make sense because most animals hate me.**

_I've got a friend like that. We think he emits some sort of weird hormonal things, because the only animals that can stand him are pets, and even those barely._

Sirius sees the other person start to type, then stop, and wonders if he's somehow insulted the other man. Should he have steered the topic away from cats? Is he being awkward? Sirius isn't sure. It's a new feeling for him.

Usually when a conversation lags, he can just toss his hair and wink, which causes the other person either to do the 21st century equivalent of a swoon, or to roll their eyes and laugh. Both of these options are perfectly acceptable, but neither of them is currently available to him.

The phone's fallen asleep by the time a new reply registers.

**Yeah. Listen, why the username? I've been wondering.**

Okay, that's fine. He probably just went to the bathroom or something.

Sirius glances at the name at the top of the screen: "werewolf mcwerewolf". It's a bit strange, but during his brief time using this app Sirius has seen far stranger. He's picked this app over dozens of others advertising the same thing (true love (or, at the very least, a shag)) for a reason: it doesn't require you to enter your name. He would be far too easy to look up, and therefore stalk; how many people named Sirius can there be in England?

(One. There is exactly one person named Sirius in England. He knows this because he has looked his name up numerous times.)

So he's using "jokingly" as his username because he is hilarious, incredibly so.

_Sort of a private joke. It's a bit of a play on my name, which is pretty weird, and before you ask, I'm not telling you what it is._

**As if you're the only one with a strange name.**

_Oh? What's yours?_

**To say or not to say, that is the question.**

_?_

**Shakespeare.**

_I know it's Shakespeare, idiot. Asking whether you're going to tell me or not._

**I think not.**

_Will you not tell me even on our wedding date? Shall we stand at the altar, and will you say "I do", and I will ask you your name, and even then you will refuse me? Is this what my fate will be, to forever be denied the thing I want most in the world?_

There's no reply for a few minutes, and Sirius is again seized with a jolt of paranoia. This is what comes of being overdramatic, he tells himself before deciding that if that was enough to scare this werewolf mcwerewolf person away, they wouldn't have gotten along anyway.

**Ah, so you're one of those people.**

Sirius is a bit embarrassed at how quickly he jumps to respond. It's kind of sad, actually, that after over two weeks online, werewolf mcwerewolf is the first not-insane human being he's met whose starter hadn't been "suck my dick". Normally Sirius isn't opposed, but a little subtlety can go a long way in the art of seduction.

Which, alright, maybe he's not the best at that either. But his strategy, after all, has never once failed him, and this time isn't about to be the first time.

* * *

"James! Hey James, take a look at this."

"I swear to god, Sirius, if this is another dick pick I'm throwing your phone out the window."

"That was an accident, as I've told you time and time again. And you shouldn't have swiped on someone else's photo gallery, were you raised in a barn or something?"

They're in James and his girlfriend Lily's flat, waiting for Lily to come back from the store, where she is hopefully buying as much alcohol as a human can carry. It's about 8 PM on a Friday night, and the fact that Remus and Peter couldn't make this rendezvous just speaks of how busy they all are nowadays.

Sirius throws his phone to James, who catches it with minimal fumbling.

"Huh," James says, scrolling through messages. "Is this from that weird app you downloaded?"

Sirius nods. "I've been talking to him for about a week, and I'm pretty sure that he's not going to murder me."

The phone buzzes, and Sirius snatches it out of James's hands.

**Are you seriously going to go with that? Not only is that a pun, it's a terrible pun.**

_Did you just insult my puns? You never insult a man's puns!_

"You do know that's Remus, right?" James asks, peering over his shoulder.

The phone drops out of Sirius's hands, and James (Sirius blesses his ridiculous instincts) catches it.

"What? Who's Remus?"

"The guy you're talking to. His username's werewolf mcwerewolf; he's practically spelling it out for you. And look at this—this sounds exactly like him. Shakespeare, Sirius. How many 20-year old men do you know who quote Shakespeare?"

Remus. The bloke he's been flirting with for the past week is his apparently-not-straight crush, one of his best friends since they were eleven. Well. Sirius can work with this.

"Do you think he knows?"

"Yes, I think he knows. He's not an idiot."

Sirius rolls his eyes. "Fine, I'll tell him."

_James says you're Remus, confirm or deny?_

They stare at the phone screen.

**Confirm. Brunch tomorrow, my flat?**

Sirius tries, and fails, to suppress a smile. He ignores the annoyingly knowing smile James gives him and types a response.

_Confirm._


	2. Chapter 2

_ Scene one: lunchtime, seventh year. _

_ Sirius, to Remus: _ you doing anything tonight?

_ Remus, looking at him oddly: _ the same thing I do every night. You live in the same room as me, Sirius.

_ Brief silence _

_ Sirius: _ you doing anyone tonight?

_ Remus: _ I'm single, mate. You know this.

_ Sirius, with evident relief that the conversation was finally going the right way: _ well, I could change that 

_ Sirius winks _

_ Remus, rolling his eyes: _ not this again! When will you stop trying to set me up with people? I'm fine, alright? If I want a boyfriend, I'll get one.

_ James, from across the table, grins at Sirius but says nothing. Sirius scowls. _

_ End scene _

* * *

 

_ Scene two: that night, definitely after midnight (say 2am) _

_ Remus, sitting up in bed suddenly:  _ Sirius!

_ Sirius, waking up: _ what's wrong?

_ Remus: _ Today. At lunch.

_ Sirius: _ yeah?

_ Remus: _ you were flirting with me.

_ Clapping erupts from James and Peter's beds. _

_ End scene _

* * *

 

_ Scene three: also that night, three seconds after the last scene. _

_ Remus, very glad that it's dark and his face cannot be seen: _ so, uh... how long have you been... flirting with me?

_ Sirius, also glad that it's dark:  _ oh, you know, around a month or two...

_ Remus: _ ah

_ Sirius:  _ ...or three or four

_ Remus:  _ oh. Sorry.

_ Sirius: _ no big deal. But, uh, do you fancy me or not?

_ Remus: _ ...yeah

_ Sirius: _ ...oh

_ Sirius's brain: _ oh HELL YEAH

_ Sirius: _ ...good

_ James, face pressed into the pillow to avoid laughing: _ blARGH

_ Remus: _ er, what?

_ James, getting back his composure: _ maybe the two of you should continue this tomorrow. When it's not 3am and you're somewhere private.

_ Sirius:  _ sure

_ End scene _

* * *

 

_ Scene four: the next morning. Peter and James have gotten up, dressed, etc at top speed, and Remus and Sirius are alone in the room. So far, it has been silent. _

_ Sirius, putting the finishing touches on his hair: _ so, uhm, about last night...

_ Remus:  _ yeah?

_ Sirius, sitting down next to Remus: _ you know how you said—

_ Remus, checking the time: _ oh shit, we have to go to breakfast.

_ Sirius: _ right. Wouldn't want to be late.

_ Remus and Sirius exit. _

_ End scene. _

* * *

 

_ Scene 5: dining hall, breakfast, the same morning. _

_ Sirius and Remus sit down at the table. Peter and James look at them curiously, but say nothing. _

_ Remus, brightly:  _ so, how's breakfast?

_ James: _ there's... bacon.

_ Sirius: _ good!

_ Several minutes pass in silence as everyone eats. _

_ Peter:  _ so, how'd it go?

_ Remus:  _ how'd what go?

_ Peter: _ I mean... what happened?

_ Remus: _ you mean just now? Sirius took even longer than usual with his hair and we went down.

_ Sirius: _ yep

_ Peter, somewhat confused: _ that's all?

_ Sirius:  _ yep

_ Peter: _ ...alright

_ End scene _

* * *

 

_ Scene 6: that day, evening, the Marauders' room. The Marauders are lying on their separate beds, either doing homework or trying to. Remus and Sirius have ignored each other while also pretending they weren't doing it throughout the day. _

_ James, looking up from his homework: _ Pete, I'm going to the kitchens. Wanna come?

_ Peter: _ no thanks; I'm busy-

_ James glares at Peter. _

_ Peter, realizing: _ I'd love to!

_ James and Peter exit. _

_ It is silent for a few minutes. _

_ Sirius:  _ so

_ Remus: _ so

_ More silence. _

_ Sirius, making an attempt: _ say hypothetically, if I were to kiss you right now, would you mind? Hypothetically, of course.

_ Remus, casually: _ probably not. Why are you wondering?

_ Sirius: _ you're being like this on purpose, aren't you.

_ Remus, looking at him and grinning:  _ yeah, I am. Your face does funny things when you're confused.

_ Sirius: _ ah

_ It's quiet again. Remus is obviously deliberating about something. _

_ Remus: _ god, this is awkward.

_ Sirius, gratefully: _ yeah.

_ Remus: _ it's just that I'm not sure what we're supposed to do now.

_ Sirius:  _ ...you've dated before.

_ Remus: _ yeah, but normally there's a date first, and then maybe after a couple dates it becomes official, and everything is just... I dunno.

_ Sirius:  _ do you want to go on a date, then?

_ Remus, after some thought:  _ not particularly

_ Sirius, relieved:  _ oh, good.

_ Both try to think of something to say for several seconds. _

_ Sirius:  _ we could go on a walk, I suppose.

_ Remus: _ what?

_ Sirius: _ around the lake. Prongs and Pete are probably going to be back soon.

_ Remus, getting up: _ alright, let's go on a walk.

_ End scene _

* * *

 

_ Scene 7: Hogwarts hallway, a few minutes later. The mood has significantly relaxed. _

_Sirius:_ —right? I mean—

_ Remus notices a broom closet, opens the door, and shoves the two of them in. _

_ Sirius:  _ what —

_ Remus kisses him. _

_ End scene _

_ Scene 8: the Marauders' room. A portion of time not significant while also not being altogether short later. _

_ James and Peter enter. _

_ Peter: _ where are they?

_ James shrugs, then retrieves the Map. He scans the paper until he finds what he's looking for, then waves Peter over. _

_ James:  _ bet you a Sickle?

_ Peter, confused:  _ bet on what?

_ James jerks his chin at the map, and Peter sees what he's looking at _ _ — _ _ the two dots labeled Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, which are suspiciously close together. _

_ James:  _ d'you think they're shagging or not?

_ Peter looks at the map for a moment, considering. _

_ Peter, reaching into his pocket an withdrawing a sickle: _ you for or against?

_ End scene _

* * *

 

_ Scene 9: that same broom closet, a few seconds after scene 8 ends. Remus and Sirius are in nearly the same position as before because I don't know how to write kiss scenes. _

_ Sirius pulls away, and the two stare at each other for a few long seconds. _

_ Remus: _ so much for that walk, huh?

_ Sirius, snorting: _ yeah...

_ Another silence, comfortable this time. _

_ Sirius: _ want to go get dinner?

_ Remus nods and goes to open the closet door, but freezes. _

_ Sirius:  _ what?

_ Remus: _ we're in a bloody closet, Sirius.

_ Sirius, groaning:  _ Prongs'll still be making jokes at my funeral.

 


	3. Chapter 3

_**September** _

Sirius still isn't used to it, and that annoys him. It's not fair that Remus should have changed so much over the summer; if Sirius had been around it might have helped get him used to the transition, but as it is Sirius waved goodbye to a lanky, awkward werewolf with a bad haircut, and Remus is now… still a werewolf, admittedly, but now he's  _hot_.

Sirius jokes about it for the first few days, then stops when he realizes that the fact that he's pointing it out so much makes him seem suspicious, and now he's stuck in a position where he hasn't quite come to terms with a good-looking Remus, while the rest of the world has moved on to tease Remus about other things, such as the fact that he folds his socks.

And that means that he's gay, doesn't it? Sirius doesn't know much about—well, about any of that, besides his mother disliking "those sorts of people", which automatically means it's something that he needs to explore—but he's fairly sure that straight teenage boys don't fold their own socks.

Unless they do, of course, and everyone except Remus is actually gay. Sirius has to at least consider the possibility, since as far as he knows the four of them have accomplished about the same amount when it comes to girls.

Which brings him to to the fact that he's spending altogether too much time thinking about Remus's sexuality, and it's really none of his business. (Of course, Sirius generally firmly holds that one Marauder's business is every Marauder's business, but this somehow feels even less his-businessy than the usual places where Sirius generally sticks his cold, wet nose that are similarly not his business.)

Sirius resolves to ignore this, no matter the cost, but conveniently forgets that he's actually rather terrible at ignoring things, especially when said things are named Moony.

_**October** _

The Halloween prank is brilliant, far outdoing anything that they've done previously. It requires nearly three weeks of setup, but it all pays off to see the expression on Professor McGonagall's face when the ceiling of the Great Hall literally  _floats away_ , carried by what appear to be millions of bats but what are in fact crudely Transfigured stalks of grass.

It's more complex than that, of course; they, unfortunately, have to spend lots of time in small corridors and passageways, finding the best places to loosen the mortars that bind together the stone bricks of Hogwarts. Even more unfortunately, Remus and Sirius are assigned to work together by an imperious James, who is too drunk on power and Butterbeer to notice the pleading looks that Sirius has been sending him.

So Sirius spends a lot of time in close quarters with Remus, and it's fine, he's fine, everything's  _fine_ , he's got it all under control and there's no reason to panic at all.

Except that there very much is, a reason that Sirius finally has to face when the plan goes off without a hitch, and they're sitting at the Halloween feast, beaming in the face of the sudden silence that is the Great Hall, and as it erupts into confused mutterings and a spontaneous round of applause (mostly from the Gryffindor Table), Remus turns to him, grinning, and Sirius thinks that he would very much like to kiss him, and things have suddenly gotten far more complicated than they need be.

_**November** _

_I'm bored, you should kiss me_ , Sirius thinks at Remus and wishes that Occlumency was undetectable so that he could sneak into Remus's mind and plant the thought there.

He catches his eye in History of Magic later that day and does his very best to think  _kiss Sirius Black, kiss Sirius Black, kiss Sirius Black_ , but it doesn't appear to have an effect except for Peter asking him if he's feeling alright.

Sirius doesn't dignify the question with a response; he gives Peter a look that is meant to convey that of course he's alright, in fact he's better than Peter could ever hope to be, but the object of his contempt just shrugs and goes back to doodling.

Sirius can feel Remus watching him, and when he catches the latter's eye, Remus raises an eyebrow at him and grins, and Sirius smirks back as though he knows what the joke is.

_**December** _

_It's Christmas, you should kiss me_.

This is the first time that they're spending Christmas together; Sirius refuses to come home with James, because Christmas is for family and he is not family, even if his cousin thrice removed on his mother's side eloped with James's great-uncle. All Purebloods are related, Sirius argues, and if James isn't asking Lucius Malfoy over for dinner then he really shouldn't be asking Sirius either.

James's response is to slam his head into a wall and declare that, fine, he'll stay too, and Sirius will be to blame for his missing out on the Potters' famous raisin pudding.

Sirius isn't sure how that's any sort of viable threat, as he believes that raising pudding is a blot of nature in every way, shape, and form, so if anything he's saving James from the untold terrors of bad food.

After a long, drawn-out melodrama involving far too many fire calls and Howlers that is rather typical of the Marauders, Remus and Peter decide to stay at Hogwarts as well, and the four of them "gallivant" around the empty castle in a manner that Professor McGonagall seems for whatever reason to find suspicious.

Truth be told, it's pretty quiet in terms of pranks. They'd used most of their best ideas for the masterpiece on Halloween, and more than a hundred collective hours spent in detention have apparently managed to put a damper on their zeal for trouble. Instead, they do a lot of lazing about and avoiding the outrageous amounts of homework that various teachers have assigned, seemingly unaware of the concept of a holiday.

And Sirius does a lot of thinking, mostly about topics he'd rather avoid. It's taken him a good four months, but he's finally comes to terms with the fact that he has a massive (and massively embarrassing) crush on one of his best friends. Unfortunately,  _coming to terms with_ and  _actually doing something about_  are entirely different matters. He thinks of a hundred different ways to ask Remus out and imagines a hundred different rejection scenes, each painful and cruel in a new, creative way.

Ultimately, he does nothing except clam up whenever the conversation turns to girls and do his best not to drop things when Remus smiles at him, which happens often enough that it's absolutely ridiculous that Sirius still gets regularly overwhelmed. Then again, what about this situation isn't?

_**January** _

_James made us run laps in below-zero weather without Heating Charms, you should kiss me to make me feel better._

Sirius's New Year's resolution is to sort out this Remus situation, preferably in a way that ends with both of them naked; James's is apparently to see how far he can push the Quidditch team before practices legally count as torture.

They practice almost every day of the week, oftentimes for three or four hours. Gryffindor is facing Slytherin in the upcoming match, and while Sirius wants to win as much as anyone, he also greatly values whatever sanity he has remaining after rooming with James Potter for six years, and this new practice schedule is threatening to completely annihilate it.

He's constantly tired nowadays, what with Quidditch, their professors taking the opportunity to remember that there's less than two years til NEWTs, and other occurrences, less pleasant even than the thought of taking a test that will decide what amounts to his entire future, all with McGonagall breathing down his neck. All in all, he can't quite muster the strength to make himself Deal With Things, even if he's starting to notice the occasional funny look from James when he pauses his pastime of Staring at Remus for long enough to notice things other than the way Remus's hair looks in the mornings, or how his eyes are actually a very nice shade of a pleasant but unidentifiable greenish-gray color.

_**February** _

_We won the match, you should kiss me._

They're at the afterparty, and Remus is too close, his breath smelling of Firewhiskey and something wicked dancing in his eyes.

That's a strange expression, Sirius reflects in a somewhat desperate attempt to distract himself, since there isn't enough room in anyone's eyes for something to dance in them, and anyway what kind of thing would go dancing in people's eyes? Sounds like… well, it sounds like something anyway, and Sirius can't really think right now, and things are sort of fuzzy round the edges, and Remus has moved even closer, if that's even possible, and Sirius can't collect himself enough to—

And then Remus kisses him, and Sirius unravels.

_**March** _

_If you don't kiss me soon I think I'm going to spontaneously combust._

They still haven't talked about it when Remus's birthday rolls around, and they continue not talking about it after it's over.

Sirius is fairly sure that it was just a bit of drunken snogging, but he thinks that they should talk about it anyway, just to make sure that there won't be any misunderstandings. He keeps trying to bring it up, but every time he tries to shift the conversation into a discussion of that night, Remus either changes the topic or disappears.

When Sirius corners him at last, Remus blurts out that it doesn't matter, it was an accident, he's sorry and he really needs to get to Arithmancy, and they can talk later. They don't talk later, of course, coming instead to an unspoken agreement to pretend that the incident never occurred, which would have been fine except for the fact that it most certainly  _did_ occur, and that Sirius would give anything for it to happen again.

Still, it's not as though Remus was at all subtle about it having been a mistake, and Sirius decides to, for perhaps the first and probably the last time in his life, to pay attention to the wants of someone beside himself and leave well enough alone.

_**April** _

_It's finally spring and I think I love you, you should kiss me._

It's so much harder to pretend, after the kiss, because on the one hand at least he knows that they're both gay, but on the other hand it also makes infinitely worse the fact that Remus doesn't want him.

Sirius catches himself staring a lot these days, but Remus's hair is so pretty in the weak spring sunlight, which can't be right because boys aren't supposed to be pretty, but there are so many things that aren't supposed to be that Sirius thinks that he may as well continue staring.

Remus has noticed, he supposes, because although he's oblivious (adorably so, Sirius finds himself thinking, and then shushes himself), no one's  _that_  clueless, and even Peter, one night in the common room, draws him aside and asks if there is something going on. To be fair, Peter is pretty perceptive, far more than they give him credit for, but he also makes a point to ignore drama that doesn't concern him directly, so Sirius takes Peter's confused questions to mean that this matter has gotten very much out of hand.

In his desperation, Sirius turns to James for help, and is rewarded with a stream of curses proclaiming his utter ridiculousness and idiocy, as apparently anyone with half a brain could tell that Remus has been pining after him for forever. Sirius rolls his eyes and goes to talk to Lily, who gives him much the same advice, but with significantly less swears.

As does Marlene, as does Frank, as do Fabian and Gideon when he gathers the courage to ask them for advice. Sirius is left wondering why the entire school seems to know more about his own love life than he does, and whether that might have to do with the fact that Remus can't tell a lie to save his life.

It's high time to make a move, Sirius realizes, but he remembers far too well how the word "mistake" sounded in Remus's mouth; the memory has unconsciously been sorted into the place where he keeps his mother's grating shriek and the tone his father uses when he's angry that promises of worse to come. So Sirius stays quiet, because he doesn't think he could handle Remus calling him a mistake again.

_**May** _

_If you smile at me like that again, I think I'll have to kiss you._

Final exams are approaching, and although it's not NEWTs—not yet—there's still plenty of pressure. It's simply that time of year, when Remus starts pulling all-nighters as though there's a competition, Peter becomes nervous and irritable, and James, for the first time since last May, deigns to open his schoolbooks. Sirius follows James's lead, if only because, with the rest of the sixth years preoccupied and the fifth and seventh years even more so, there isn't much else for him to do but study unless he plans to make friends with fourteen year olds.

That isn't to say that Sirius is happy about this, nor that he gives in to the supposedly good once influence without a fight.

After a particularly trying few hours in the library during which he fails again and again to remember the ingredients for a Draught of Living Death, Sirius amuses himself for a while by continuously changing the contents of the book that a seventh year Slytherin whose name he really should know is studying from.

He's somewhat surprised to find that the boy dutifully copies down the printed words, even as Sirius changes them from complex Arithmancy theories to his own opinions on the use of Dung Bombs vs Exploding Fruit, but it's still fairly amusing. That is, until the boy (who Sirius remembers as once promising to cleanse the school of the unpure at any cost) looks over his notes, realizes that they're worse than useless, and bursts into tears.

Sirius decides to stay away from pranks for a while after that.

At around that time, he begins to notice that every time he goes down to the common room in the middle of the night—on his way to the kitchens, perhaps, for some emergency hot chocolate, or just on a walk to clear his head—he never fails to find Remus there, head bent over a thick textbook and eyes bleary with sleep and far too many Pepper-Up Potions. Sirius knows why Remus is studying, knows that his prospects aren't good and that this is one of the few things that Remus can actually control about his future, but it's still hard to resist the temptation to hit him over the head and knock him out so that he'll be forced to sleep for at least a few hours.

The night before their first exam, Sirius stays in the common room with Remus, making flash cards and the occasional snarky remark and adding obnoxious amounts of sugar into his over-brewed tea. When Remus snaps at him to go to bed if he isn't planning to be useful, Sirius shrugs, gets up, and leaves. Remus doesn't seem to notice that he doesn't go up the staircase, instead heading toward the portrait and out into the hall.

He returns almost half an hour later; it's nearly two in the morning, and Remus is staring balefully at the book in front of him as though trying to extract the information from it by sheer willpower.

Sirius tries not to grin as he stands in front of Remus, hovering over him until the latter is forced to ask him what he thinks he's doing, to which Sirius responds by smirking and holding out the book in his hand—the  _Complete Referendum of Archaic Runes_ , the most sought-after textbook in any high-level Ancient Runes class, especially near exam time. He holds it out, and although he knows that he looks properly smug he thinks he rather deserves self-satisfaction; it took him, after all, a good twenty minutes to break into the Hufflepuff common room,  _Accio_  the book, and get back out again without being caught.

Remus looks up at last, and the expression that crosses his face when he sees the  _Referendum_  is, honestly, a bit terrifying. It looks like something breaking; it looks like the words "fuck it"; it looks like Remus standing up, and muttering words that would later be deemed entirely unimportant; it looks like, the next morning, two boys spread out on a sofa in a position that would be considered suggestive even if either of them was wearing any clothes.

It looks like "finally".

_**June** _

_I miss you, you daft bastard, and I wish you'd visit._

Summer has always been screaming matches and shattered plates and doors slamming, but this year—since what happened last July—it's seeing the back of Regulus's head at the train station and not regretting his choice, even if he wishes he could come home.

Home is the Potters' now, though, and it's wonderful, because James's parents are wonderful (Sirius knows that Remus would get along so well with Mr. Potter, who listens to the same strange Muggle music that Remus likes so much), and James is wonderful (sometimes he says something ridiculous and Sirius looks around to roll his eyes at Remus except that Remus is annoyingly Not There), and Sirius finds an old motorbike and fixes it up to make it fly (Sirius can just imagine Remus's expression when he sees it; it'll be a mix between horror, glee, and fascination, Sirius is sure, but maybe without the glee), and though they go camping and hiking, and even to France for a little bit, Sirius spends all of June missing Remus.

Maybe, Sirius thinks,  _he_  is the daft bastard, and has been all along, though it's not as much fun to contemplate without Remus around.

James laments about his mate having turned into a disgusting lovesick ponce, and although Sirius is quick to mention Lily Evans, he has to admit that James does have a point.

Sirius wonders if Remus, too, is a disgusting lovesick ponce, and then he goes to put jelly slugs in James's underwear, because some things never actually change.

_**July** _

_I miss you, you daft bastard, and I wish you'd visit._

Sirius writes out the letter, but doesn't mail it. He stares at the scribbled words, then crumples up the paper and throws it in the trash can with a vehemence he doesn't feel.

_**August** _

_I miss you, Moony._

He does mail the letter this time, and spends an inordinate amount of time pacing James's (his, that is) bedroom waiting for a response. The response turns out to be a piece of paper that's clearly been through far too much Remus-induced trauma in its short life. Sirius can see the places where Remus's Erasing Spell didn't quite manage to get rid of the ink, of which there is quite a lot. Sirius wishes he knew what the earlier drafts of the letter looked like, but he supposes that the version he has is good enough:

_Me too._

_**August** _

They meet up in Diagon Alley the day before school starts; James and Peter have decided, with many a pointed glance, to spend the day in Muggle London and let Sirius and Remus get on with it without interruptions. Sirius isn't sure what he imagines they would be getting on in broad daylight within view of eleven-year olds, but he supposes the fact that they suspect that the two of can get in trouble in such a position is a testament to his unbounded sexiness and charm (or, as Remus would call it, depravity).

Remus does, in fact, call it depravity, and many times over, in fact, but since his tongue is somewhere in the vicinity of Sirius's mouth as he says it Sirius decides not to take him too seriously. 


End file.
